I had a great first experience in Hamburg, Germany. It’s a lovely city and the spectators were really amazing along the entire course!

I am very happy with my 11th on Saturday. After this result I am ranked 10th in the world, a result I had never anticipated.

I had a good start and made my way to 2nd after 400m sitting just behind Richard Varga. I had a good transition and we had made a small break of about 9 athletes. The pace was kept very fast with both Brownlees pushing Very hard. We managed to open a 30s gap to our nearest chase group after 20km of cycling. I had a very good transition off the bike and was running out just ahead of the Brownlee brothers and Gomez. They caught up shortly and I ran with the three greats of triathlon for about a kilometer and a half before Gomez surged and I fell off the group. It was a fast pace, maybe a little too fast in the first 500m for me but I never felt that I would be in trouble and that I could sustain the pace. I don’t think my body was 100% on race day, I didn’t feel good leading into the race once I arrived in Hamburg, due to a long travel and not getting any sleep on Tuesday night. Having said that I am happy I held onto 11th. My day was made just by running with the three greats in triathlon, the three medalists from the London Olympic Games. This is still just my first year racing on this level and my main objective this year was to learn and experience as much as I can.

I look forward to start a new training block after my return back to South Africa in preparation for the Grand Finale in London. I will compete in Stockholm as a test of where I am with training and if I am on track for London.

Many thanks goes to my family, girlfriend and friends for supporting me so much back home. Also to my sponsors for their awesome support including FINIS, HUUB Design, Cytomax, Puma and Classic Eyes Gateway.